Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Austrian philosopher. On Certainty, sct. 1 (1969).
Opening sentence, a response to a lecture by the philosopher G.E. Moore, in which he refuted the premises of skepticism.

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It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.

It would strike me as ridiculous to want to doubt the existence of Napoleon; but if someone doubted the existence of the earth 150 years ago, perhaps I should be more willing to listen, for now he is doubting our whole system of evidence.

What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.